Asian Cup Focus
The stadium fell into a momentary silence, then the noise of the crowd began to spread, with some cheers faintly echoing.
There was only one reason this could happen on our home ground: the home team with overwhelming home support had conceded a goal.
And right now, inside our goal, the ball that had been spinning was still rolling around.
'What kind of ankle strength is this...'
From almost 35 meters away, shooting such a shot. Marisol, who hadn't done any ceremony, glanced at me once before walking toward her own half with a stern expression still on her face.
"It's okay, Yeon-ji. It's not your fault."
"...Ah, I shouldn't have given you the space."
Even though Big League teams were bidding for her, Kang Yeon-ji, who could be considered the best defender in Korea, lowered her head. But this wasn't her fault.
Just a 1-second gap. Marisol, who created such a goal without a run-up in that single 1-second gap, was a monster.
"I'm sorry. I told you weird information by mistake."
Actually, that gap was basically made by me. This season, I was the one who said Marisol almost doesn't take medium-range shots and plays with passes.
"...No. Actually, I didn't think it was that dangerous either."
Thinking she was trying to comfort me, I looked at Kang Yeon-ji's face, but she didn't seem particularly like that.
"Come on, come on. Let's try again. We can still do it. It's just one point."
Park Hye-ri, the right fullback replacing fake captain Seo-hee, encouraged the players, but the players' expressions didn't change. It meant the play Marisol had shown just now was destructive.
Logically, after a few passes with midfielders, shooting without a run-up from around 35m would naturally make one feel deflated.
But if we shrank back like this, what was left was only defeat.
'Seo-hee senior! Say something!'
I couldn't stay still and shot lasers at Seo-hee senior.
"Um... Let's try. Since we had the possession, we were winning."
Fortunately, Seo-hee senior, who rarely spoke long, made the players nod. Actually, as Seo-hee said, we weren't particularly disadvantaged. Since we perfectly executed the possession play that Diene used, lowering her line and passing, our possession was 6.5 : 3.5, which was advantageous for us.
But the attack wasn't progressing as thought.
'Now, no failure is allowed. Marisol is dangerous today.'
Because the attack wasn't progressing as thought, I tried some adventurous passes, but since I knew Marisol's condition was good enough to score such shots today, I couldn't allow any mistakes.
Glancing at the clock, there was about 10 minutes left until halftime. It wasn't easy to score one goal in 10 minutes while slowly controlling the game, but I couldn't give up.
"Pass!"
So, while running around the most, I threw the ball around the center of the field, but unfortunately, I couldn't shake Uruguay's solidly defended goal net.
"We conceded one point, but it's okay. Uruguay is a strong enough team. We haven't synced only three times yet. But being able to maintain such possession against Uruguay means our tactics work on the world stage too. Anyway, since it's a friendly match, let's not worry about the win or loss and just play."
However, Diene, despite being behind, smiled and clapped for us, not seeming to be conscious of the result.
'Was she always like this? I remember seeing her get angry in the locker room a few times.'
In Barcelona days, I saw her get angry at other players when conceding a first goal to a relatively weak opponent or coming back from a losing first half, but after a few months, she seemed quite different.
"Chae-ri, isn't playing as central midfielder confusing?"
"Ah, no, coach."
"But you have talent. Your ball control and passing ability won't be inferior to Spanish players. Play more confidently."
"Ah! Yes!"
Even giving warm words to Kim Chae-ri, who had provided the seed for the first goal by failing a through pass, made me think if it's really the Diene I know.
'What? Is she running for election? Why is she acting like this suddenly?'
Although I was surprised by Diene's change, seeing Kim Chae-ri's impressed expression made me feel like I was the strange one.
'...Let's focus on soccer. Uruguay isn't a team that can win by thinking like this.'
After clearing the random thoughts from my head, spending time listening to the coach's feedback, it was time for the second half to start.
And the second half against Uruguay began.
Uruguay started strongly from the kickoff, and this time, a cross from the fullback connected to Marisol.
Thud.
Marisol's header went towards the goal with a light sound. However, fortunately, goalkeeper Kim Eun-hye cleared Marisol's header shot with her fingertips, resulting in a corner kick. Fortunately, Uruguay, like other South American teams, wasn't strong in set pieces, so we could block their corner kicks and immediately attempt a counterattack.
"Haneul-ah!"
And in that counterattack, the player at the top was, of course, me, who wasn't helpful at all. Seo-hee senior's long kick landed exactly inside my foot.
"Ugh."
And although I had expected it, at the same time I received the ball, I felt a strong impact from behind. This was the will to block the counterattack even by committing a foul. My body had to lean forward due to the body check, but the ball was still under my foot.
I didn't resist the force and fell forward, putting my hand on the ground. Then, like doing a burpee, I pulled my legs towards my upper body and sprang up.
Of course, the ball was stuck to my foot.
'I thought you were used to receiving this kind of thing!'
Now I had learned some techniques to receive opponents with my body, so a soft push like this wouldn't work to take me down.
...But my legs weren't faster, so the defender was chasing right behind me.
One goalkeeper in front, and two fullbacks chasing from behind.
The goalkeeper, aware of my lob shot and dribbling ability, stayed close to the goal without rushing out, a bit far, and the fullbacks, not knowing I could stand after body check, were a bit surprised and chasing, sticking close behind me.
'No help...'
Looking back, there were no players to help with corner kick defense. I was completely alone. Of course, such situations were familiar.
The guy running from the left was close to me, so I ran in the right diagonal direction to block the guy coming from the right. Now it was 1:1. But because I turned a bit, I almost got my jersey grabbed by the guy.
Slap!
But I had already seen the situation and swung my hand back to swat away the hand the guy was stretching, and in that moment, the distance opened a bit. Now the distance to the goal was about 30m. I wanted to shoot like Marisol from here, but I knew it was impossible, so I instantly slowed down, bent my upper body, and stopped in place.
"Eh, eh...!"
Then the guy chasing me made a voice with obvious surprise and ran past me with his hand cutting the air.
It was clear it would take time for the guy to chase me again.
'For now, one is done.'
Having gotten one, now it was time to run again. I kicked the ball once more and ran forward. Of course, while I was stopped, another defender who had blocked the path was following behind me.
'If this is the case, then the way is...!'
So, when I got to about 25m, I pretended to shoot right away. Even though I knew in my head that a shot from this distance wouldn't go in, in such a hurried situation, the body would react before the head.
And for a player of a certain level, the body would reflexively react to my shot fake.
The sound of grass rubbing against the body was heard. Probably trying to do a back tackle. But since I had already thought of the shot fake, it wasn't difficult to retrieve the ball with the kicked foot, and the defender who came for the tackle slid past in front of me.
If it was a slightly higher class player, they would have held back until the end and just interfered with the shot, but there was no such class of defender in Uruguay, so it was natural.
So now, only one goalkeeper was left in front of me, and I ran forward into the guy's front. The guy I had gotten first was approaching my side, but now the distance was about 15m...!
And at this distance, with my current state, it was a position where I could definitely shoot.
Pang!
The shot style I chose was a left foot out front kick to deceive the guy's senses. The Uruguayan goalkeeper, who flinched for a moment, moved his body about half a pace seeing my left foot, but that was his mistake.
Exactly that half a pace distance, my shot missed the guy's hand.
"Waaaaaaa!!!!!"
'Wow... It felt like I ran almost 40m?'
A 40m dribble goal that I hadn't succeeded in for a long time. And after scoring such a goal, there was a consciousness that I couldn't miss.
"Riiiiuuuuuu!!!!!!"
-Riiiiiuuuuuu!!!!!
And since they were waiting for my ceremony, the spectators all shouted my name in one voice. The cheer sounded like an echo reverberating inside a cave, making my chest feel grand.
'Kuu, this is the taste.'
But the spectators recognized my ceremony, but the other teammates didn't, with somewhat awkward expressions.
After that, after high-fiving with teammates, on the way back to our field.
"The ceremony is too plain."
"...If Marisol wants to do it too, say so. I'll lend you the ceremony."
"You... No, it's fine."
Although Marisol was jealous of my ceremony, I gave her the generosity of an adult, and Marisol's expression became like chewing dung again.
Seeing Marisol's expression that had been ticking since the start of the game was really fun, but unfortunately, that was the last dopamine of this game.
After about 65 minutes of the second half, a substitution command was given to me, who had been running around since the first half and was almost crawling now.
'Tsk, did I overdo it today?'
And without me, Uruguay's attack frequency would naturally increase, and Marisol, who had thrown 6 shots after I left, put two into the goal net, proving why she was the best goalscorer.
'...Did she change her style right after El Clasico? She shot 11 times today? ...Indeed, this is better. Tsk, it's unfair. If I had that body, I would really put in 100 goals for the season.'
Pip! Pip! Pip - pip!
So when the game ended, the score was 3:1. Despite being the first loss after Diene took over as Korean coach, she smiled kindly and clapped, busy encouraging the players, and in that gap, Marisol approached me.
"I won today."
And the guy bragging that he won. I could immediately tell what emotion was in the guy's face. Most players who had won against me in games in my previous life had this expression.
'What? This guy...'
This was an expression mixed half with inferiority and half with satisfaction.
"Huh? Ah... Yeah. Since it's like this, how about exchanging uniforms?"
"Eh? Wait, what's inside your..."
"Of course, what's wearing. What are you thinking?"
"Because you acted like that... No, it's fine. Here, mine."
Marisol, blushing, received my uniform and walked toward her own half.
'Tsk... But changing style right away. Indeed, she doesn't seem like just some small fry.'
And looking at her back, I felt a strong premonition that I would be entangled with that guy a lot in the future.